KAIROUAN - Its Military and Scientific Role

Abstract

The research deals with the city of Kairouan: the objective of its establishment, its origin, development, prosperity, and its historic role as the first base of Islamic ascendance in the Al- Maghreb, which formed the political as well as cultural capital since the beginning of the Arab-Islamic influence in Al-Maghreb. The research focuses on the role of Kairouan, after its prosperity, to spread the Arab-Islamic culture in Africa, and the dissemination of Islamic tenets in the Orient as well as in the West. It also deals with a multitude of eminent scientists and scholars who belonged to Kairouan, and were outstanding intellectuals in Islamic science, the Arab social and astronomical sciences, medicine and other fields, who strove hard to acquire knowledge in the Libraries of Kairouan, especially Bayt Al-Hekmah- the House of Wisdom. Kairouan attracted hundreds of Muslim students from the East as well the West Islamic world. The research also highlights Kairouan relations and its links with the centers of other Islamic countries. These links support the view and the underlying idea of this research that Kairouan played a vital and broad role in spreading the Arab-Islamic culture and science in the Al- Maghreb, and in other Muslim countries such as Al- Hijaz, Iraq, Belad Ash-Sham-the Levant- and Andalusia.